Lusac did follow Yrqw's advice to clean up a little, though all that meant was stopping at the nearest restroom to clean off the dust and debris. He attempted to wipe up the few drops of blood that had accumulated on his calf from Avil's teeth, but he didn't have time to worry about the noticeable holes in his uniform.
Walking back out of the bathroom, Lus wondered why he was being called up. Most likely it was just to go back over the details of the recent mission, but somewhere in the back of his mind he remained nervous that they had caught onto his arrangement with Leviathan. Captain Tave was not a man he wanted to end up on the wrong side of.
The briefing room was just off of Command, which stood at the front of the ship and was where most of the main ship functions happened. The Command Crew represented the highest ranking members of each respective division. It took a lot of ladders to get there from the bottom floor where Systems Control was.
Lusac relaxed a little as he entered the room, seeing that Captain Tave was engaged in a casual chat with Cewi-Bano while Wsr and Vlqtrn sat at the rectangular table that took up much of the space. It was designed to be able to hold large meetings of ten people, making it feel a little empty with only half the chairs taken. One large oval window looked out of the ship, deep into the void of space. They were traveling in the Highway now based on the green swirls blurring past. Unlike most areas of the ship, this room had a rug and a few decorations from Captain Tave's travels that made it far more distinctive. Supposedly the Captain's personal quarters were like a mini art museum with all the pieces he kept in there, but Lus doubted it was something he would ever see in his lifetime.
"Arten, about time," Captain Tave acknowledged him as he walked near the table. Lusac disliked being referred to by his last name, something that was distinctly Human. All other species almost exclusively used first names since Kremel just listed five generations of lineage and Nemarians used their birthplace as secondary identifiers. Yet Captain Tave kept up with the ancient Human practice.
"Sorry, sir. I was handling some other business when the call came in," Lus explained in simple terms as he took in the tall man before him. The captain's blond hair held its usual cut, a classic style where it was all cut fairly short with a little extra length on top, though a few streaks of gray were starting to show. He also kept a neatly trimmed beard that made him look mature and dignified, especially compared to some of the rougher members of the crew.
The Captain motioned his half salute away and gestured to a chair. "We have a lot to discuss and not as much time as I would like."
Lusac quickly sat, leaning forward to seem as engaged as he could. Normally he didn't care much for others' perception of him, but Tave was the one who allowed him on to the crew even when most of the top-level crew advised against it, so Lus wanted to show he wasn't a complete idiot all the time at least.
"Cewi-Bano." Captain Tave then nodded to his third-in-command.
The Nemarian used a remote to dim the lights even further while a holoimage popped up in the middle of the table. It was one Lus had seen before during the briefing before his last off-ship mission to the warehouse. He recognized the strange puzzle piece with a slight curve to it as the same thing Cewi-Bano carried off the planet the day before. He was mildly surprised someone of his rank was being brought into the secret of what it was or why it mattered. Typically those kinds of things were reserved for people who needed to know, not fslyan crawlers like him.
"Wsr, Lus, I trust you both recognize this image," Cewi started.
"Yeah. It's that thing we nearly got shot over. Tell me it's something important," Wsr cut in.
"It's a piece of something important. One of many," Cewi said.
Upon her saying that, Lus did notice that this one wasn't quite like the one he saw back on the planet. The edges were shaped differently, more jagged and convex than the one he helped retrieve.
"So it's one big puzzle," he replied.
Cewi nodded, a small smile on her wide mouth.
"But what does it do?" Vlqtrn asked.
"That's not our concern. Our client is paying us to collect the pieces, not study it," Captain Tave said brusquely. "What happens once they have a complete set isn't something we get paid to worry about."
"Just curious," the Kremel apologized, his oversized ears drooping a bit.
Lus was careful to keep a neutral face, even if he did think that was overly harsh. Still, Vlqtrn should have known better. Captain Tave wasn't known for his patience.
"What does matter," Cewi drew the room back to the holoimage, "is that we've located another piece. The one shown here. It's on Vopir, in the Southern Reach Museum of Lesser Known Galactic History."
The image changed to be a 3D map of the planet that slowly zoomed into the location she described.
"Vopir. That's a Corporate planet," Lus pointed out.
"Yes. But there's some heavy fighting in the center of Artemis that has drawn most of the fleet in that sector. This will be a quick mission, in and out within a couple of days. We'll be long gone before any of the military ships start their usual patrols again," Cewi assured the crew, though she was mainly looking at Lusac, trying to address his worries. No one wanted a run in with the Corporate Military, but Lus ran a lot more risk if his deserter status was discovered.
"A museum is a much more difficult target than a dusty old warehouse, and we ran into a lot of resistance there. This seems like a rather small team if we actually want to pull this off," Wsr noted.
Captain Tave nodded. He was always fair about things he deemed genuine concerns. "Our warehouse grab had limited surveillance and study beforehand. We're going to change that this time."
"We're going to take a full day to do recon in and around the museum. We'll also be leaning on a local contact for a secret landing pad so we can bring whatever gear we might need," Cewi filled in. "Most importantly, stealth is our highest priority. We messed up with the warehouse, thinking that it wasn't under guard. We're not making any kind of assumptions here."
"I'd like to believe this will be the hardest piece to get," Captain Tave added. "We chose you three to join Cewi-Bano because you all have necessary skills. Vlqtrn, the tech expert, Wsr will be our strength, and Arten will handle the actual recovery with his adept stealth skills. Cewi-Bano will cover everyone with her sniper and make sure you all make it home in one piece."
Lus was more than a little proud the Captain considered his stealth skills "adept." Take that Leviathan and his stupid system.
They went over a more detailed plan of the upcoming mission, ranging from the place they would stay while on planet to the team's cover story. Eventually they were all dismissed, and Lus left holding a holodrive full of information he was supposed to study and memorize over the next day and a half before they reached Vipor. The only good news is that he got the rest of the day off, at least from his maintenance duties. Cooking dinner was still a necessary evil in his day, but it seemed a little less horrible of a thought when he considered that he gained [XP] from it at least.